Quake3World

I am trying to fix a Toshiba Satellite A305-S6905 for a co-worker. I guess it was originally having wireless issues and I have no idea what the guy's wife did to it, I'll have to assume a virus, but it won't 'boot windows'.

Windows loading screen does its thing then a black screen with a movable cursor. CTRL-ALT-DEL does nothing as does CTRL-ALT-ESC.

Things I've attempted:

EBCD
Granted I had the demo version, which does not let you save the changes made to the BCD logs, but I was able to use a different boot disk to change them in the registry.


Vista Repair Disk
I found one and tried to run through the basic options here. Also, I went into the registry and found that these two registry keys were altered:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Shell & Userinit
Attempted to change to shell to: Explorer.exe and Userinit to: C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe
Restart, no change. Go into registry, these two items changed back to: Shell - cmd.exe /k start cmd.exe and I don't remember exactly what Userinit was changed to.
Also tried this from the cmd: "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" to write to the mbr (vista start after reboot) or "bootrec.exe /fixboot" to write a boot sector

Hiren's Boot CD
I found something that was Hiren's and a different booter all in one. I went into the registry here and it shows the shell and userinit are what they are supposed to be.


I'm stumped. I've done a lot of reading and poking around and I'm out of ideas.

Does it boot into safe mode?

Have you tested the hard drive (could be HDD failure)?

Cannot boot into safe mode. Or I read somewhere something about booting into a low res mode in case it was a video issue. No luck with that either.

Wouldn't the Windows screen (with the loading bar) not even come up if the HDD failed?

Fairly certain I can save the important stuff and tell him to reformat. This thing is a dinosaur. Also they never did a back up or set a restore point so I can't say I feel completely terrible about it.

The shell command in the registry is what is getting to me the most. The cmd.exe /k start cmd.exe Except when I look at the string in the Avast Regedit on the Hiren's boot disk. It says Explorer.exe.

I appreciate any input though. I like to fix peoples computers and usually I do all right. I don't like to admit defeat

HDD failures vary, it can be failing, completely dead, most of the disk works but has a few bad sectors on critical spots, etc. The resulting symptoms thus vary as well: it can boot into Windows just fine but blue screen occasionally, it can boot but slow, boot part way and freeze, not boot at all.

I would recommend backup if possible, test hard drive. If OK, reformat; else buy new computer, shit's old.

sounds like it was hit with a virus.

If getting the files is the priority then a USB or CD boot repair utility could help.

there is no safe mode or boot last known good configuration option after pressing f5 or f8 after bios screen before windows splash screen?

I had your problem once , virus changed a freinds password and removed boot options so after too much wasted time I repaired the OS by booting up with the OS boot installation CD.

SuperAntispyware after it's fixed and if not EBCD or better free USB or CD Linux rescue utilities to fix or just retieve important files.

OS boot installation Cd should be your first option.